418 All Alone!

This brief moment of hesitation by Qiao Ting, however, gave the initially helpless sitting ducks Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing a chance to counterattack.

The two of them were ecstatic — they did not hesitate to pilot their mecha to charge fiercely at Qiao Ting. Even though they too might face that wave of beam energy Li Lanfeng had shot in this direction if they moved forwards, this still could not stop them from doing so.

Lin Zhong-qing and Xie Yi were well aware that up against a powerful ace operator, they were incapable of taking any blows from the other, much less counterattacking. Wu Jiong, who was stronger than them, had already proved this point. Once they hesitated and wavered, they may likely die in vain, unable to even use self-destruction to ply some damage on the opponent.

Thus, when they saw a chance to approach Qiao Ting, the two of them naturally had nothing to fear. Even as they charged towards Qiao Ting, they each pressed the self-destruct buttons of their mecha.

Witnessing all this, inside the VIP room, Tang Yu could not help but sigh and say, "Qiao Ting, he is too indecisive." At the critical moment, Qiao Ting had still been too cautious. With his abilities, if he could have just been a bit more resolute, quickly drawing his beam saber to attack Lingtian No.6 and Lingtian No.7, he could definitely have killed those two instantly. Then, Lingtian No.6 and Lingtian No.7 would never have had the chance to get close to Qiao Ting, and so they would not have been able to use self-destructs to harm Qiao Ting.

The keen-eyed Tang Yu had seen through Lingtian No.6 and Lingtian No.7's plans with just one glance. Unfortunately, Qiao Ting had hesitated at that key moment. This hesitation that should not have appeared gave the initially hopeless Lingtian No.6 and Lingtian No.7 a chance to self-destruct.

"Qiao Ting is likely to suffer some trouble now." The principal too could see very clearly. Compared to Tang Yu, he was even more objective. From the very start, Qiao Ting had actually held the absolute upper hand, but after time and time again of mistakes in decision making during battle, his advantage had been whittled away bit by bit. If Qiao Ting continued to make mistakes after this, he might really lose all of his advantages as an ace operator. In terms of taking control of the larger picture, he was undoubtedly somewhat lacking.

"If Qiao Ting still cannot commit fully here, this match is likely to become treacherous for him," said Tang Yu, frowning. Even though he could not see as clearly as the principal had, he still knew that Qiao Ting's advantage was steadily decreasing. If he did not put his full effort into the fight now, the outcome would really become unpredictable.

"Qiao Ting probably didn't think that that Lingtian No.11 would be so ruthless." The principal found an excuse for Qiao Ting's mistake. At this point, the principal could not help but shake his head and say, "To tell the truth, this No.11's method's are a little over the top. In order to attack Qiao Ting, he doesn't even mind doing so at the expense of his teammates." Being retired, the principal especially treasured those old battle comrades of his, and so found this sort of behaviour rather unacceptable.

"If Lingtian No.11 had not done as he did, Lingtian No.6 and Lingtian No.7 would, without question, have been killed by Qiao Ting and directly eliminated." Tang Yu held an opposing view, however. "Since the outcome would be the same either way, he might as well push it to the limits. Perhaps then, his teammates' deaths would not be as worthless."

"Also, principal, this is the virtual world. Death isn't really death here." Tang Yu reminded the principal that the virtual world was still fundamentally different from the real world.

"I'm only afraid that these children will develop a habit here, that for the sake of victory, they would be willing to sacrifice anything that can be sacrificed ..." Even though the competition in the academy was fierce, it was still not a true battlefield after all. If someone could already be so cold and ruthless here, then would they be even more callous and unfeeling on a real battlefield? The principal could not avoid worrying about this.

"Sometimes, sacrifice is unavoidable even if it is undesired," said Tang Yu. The principal's words had caused Tang Yu's eyes to darken, revealing a glimpse of a deep well of pain, as if he were recalling something unpleasant.

Tang Yu's strange state jolted the principal to awareness. He quickly changed the topic by saying, "Matters of the future, no one can tell what will happen. Let us just continue watching. Who knows? Perhaps, these children will bring us some pleasant surprises." The principal somewhat blamed himself for speaking too thoughtlessly and accidentally prodding at the deeply hidden wound in Tang Yu's heart.

Tang Yu only nodded in silence. At this moment, he really had no more interest in talking.

During the conversation between the principal and Tang Yu, Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing had died by self-destructing as Tang Yu and the principal had foreseen.

It should be said that the boys had achieved their objective, though imperfectly. Although Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing had been charging at Qiao Ting at full speed, Qiao Ting was Qiao Ting after all — his reputation as the top person in the military academy was not just for show. His control skills were indeed outstanding — despite the short distance which did not allow him to completely evade the two opponents sudden charge, his improvised reactionary operation had still let him successfully avoid Xie Yi's charge, and Lin Zhong-qing's charge had only brushed his mecha a little.

If Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing had not chosen to self-destruct, their attacks could have been said to be perfectly counteracted by Qiao Ting. However, Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing had already been determined to self-destruct from the start, so the moment they brushed by Qiao Ting's mecha — just as they were about to face Li Lanfeng's beam attacks head on and bring about a scene of death by friendly fire — the two of them successfully self-destructed.

Two loud explosive booms rang out. Xie Yi's and Lin Zhong-qing's mecha exploded at the same time on both sides of Qiao Ting's mecha. The great force generated by the two explosions instantly shook Qiao Ting unconscious. Without anyone to pilot it, his mecha instantly lost control and began to plummet towards the ground head first.

In the air, Li Lanfeng saw this and his heart leapt in joy, for he knew that Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing had succeeded with their self-destructs. He quickly operated his own mecha to fly down as well, his beam gun shooting without hesitation at the out of control ace mecha.

Bang, bang, bang! There were several consecutive sounds of beams hitting mecha. If the beam shield of Qiao Ting's mecha had not maintained a certain degree of energy protection throughout all this, his mecha would have likely incurred a considerable amount of damage from these few shots. Still, these few shots had caused the beam shield of Qiao Ting's mecha to turn dim all of a sudden. As long as Li Lanfeng continued shooting, a few more shots would probably break the beam shield completely. At that time, an ace mecha with no defences would not be able to withstand a blow from any weapon.

Qiao Ting was after all the most outstanding talent in the military academy in recent years — he could be termed aberrant both in terms of spiritual power and physique. It took only the blink of an eye for him to regain consciousness. When he found that his mecha was in freefall and saw Li Lanfeng's tenacious pursuit from above, he did not panic even in the face of such a desperate situation. His first choice was not to try and rein in his out of control mecha. Instead, he raised the beam gun in his hand, aimed it at Li Lanfeng, and calmly returned fire.

"Bang, bang, bang!" Although both combatants were proficient at long-range attacks, Qiao Ting's skills in this respect were even more impressive than Li Lanfeng's. With just three shots, Li Lanfeng was forced to evade and the beam attacks from the gun in his hands were interrupted. This let Qiao Ting breathe a sigh of relief ...

"Warning, mecha entering into low altitudes of less than 100 metres. There is a risk of crashing. Now 90 metres, 80 metres ... 50 metres, 40 metres, 30 metres! Danger! Danger! Please raise mecha's altitude immediately ..." Qiao Ting had barely just finished dealing with Li Lanfeng's attacks when a new crisis involving his mecha came to his attention. The mecha's A.I. was screaming urgently, alerting Qiao Ting that, once the mecha passed the 30-metre limit without raising its altitude, it would be impossible to avoid a crash.

"Rise up for me!" Qiao Ting temporarily stopped attacking Li Lanfeng to turn his full focus on operating his mecha. Engaging all the engines on his mecha, Qiao Ting fingers flew, changing the fixed coefficients of his mecha.

The plummeting mecha finally came to a sudden stop at an altitude of 20 metres — the incredible power of the engines pushed the mecha which had been calibrated to suit low altitudes in a desperate attempt to defy gravity. The deep rumble of the engines reverberated throughout the entire venue — as the mecha was very close to the ground, the airflow bursting out of the engines actually sent sand and dirt spraying up into the air. Very soon, the dust had spread, turning the airspace of about 20 to 30 metres high into a world of swirling sand, so turbid that no one could see what was going on inside clearly.

Finally regaining control of his mecha, Qiao Ting divided his attention between operating his mecha in a slow ascent and pulling the trigger of his beam gun to keep Li Lanfeng, who was still attempting to attack him, at bay ...

The mecha finally managed to reach an altitude of 50 metres, escaping from the risk of crashing. All mobility functions of the mecha were back to normal. Qiao Ting felt pained as he looked at that 30% damage indicator — the self-destructs of those two punks earlier had still ended up dealing quite a bit of damage to his mecha.

Qiao Ting was filled with hate, which deepened to loathing with regards to Li Lanfeng in the air above him. If not for the other's wide-scale attack heedless of friend or foe, Qiao Ting would not have hesitated and given those two mecha the chance to self-destruct. Qiao Ting blamed his error in judgment on Li Lanfeng's insanity. He decided that before the last two members of Lingtian arrived, he would first finish off this sticky-candy of an opponent, Li Lanfeng.

Just as Qiao Ting was about to take action — "Beep!" "Beep!" "Beep!" — three sounds marking notifications from the Mecha World mainframe rang out in quick succession. Qiao Ting reflexively swept a glance over the notifications panel, and the contents of the notifications almost made him spew blood and die right then and there. It turned out that his only remaining three team members had been successfully taken out by Lingtian within the last few seconds. In other words, he, Qiao Ting, was the only representative left for Leiting. He was now truly all alone.

In contrast, the Lingtian Mecha Clan still had three members to its name. Qiao Ting felt rage crest in his heart — he had initially thought that this would be a one-sided fight, but now the outcome was reversed where it was them, Leiting, who were being beaten badly. Even he was somewhat messed up, and this made hate rise in Qiao Ting's heart.

With a face full of killing intent, Qiao Ting looked towards Li Lanfeng who had been keeping his distance. This sudden burst of cloying killing intent chilled Li Lanfeng's heart, though he had sensed even stronger killing intent coming from Ling Lan before. He knew for certain that the following fight would not be ordinary ... he clenched his hands hard over his beam gun, his entire being alert for what was to come.

Qiao Ting's mecha suddenly warped in the air, and in the next second, he was already by Li Lanfeng's side. At this key moment, Qiao Ting had abandoned the long-range attacks he was most proficient in and had chosen to use his relatively weaker close combat skills instead to engage the enemy. This unexpected move caused everyone in the audience to exclaim, unable to understand Qiao Ting's decision right then.